We have all been hearing quite a lot about the importance of eating healthy in order to, well, keep our bodies healthy. And, there is definitely not an objection here on my part. There is no doubt that your diet is important and that watching what you eat will help you stay healthy, maintain a desired bodyweight, as well as have a positive impact on your hearth, your gut, and basically your entire physical wellbeing.
There is, however, a kind of an objection that I have, and it is connected to the fact that we are talking a lot about the connection between our diet and our physical health, while not even thinking about how it can affect our mental wellbeing. And, well, that has to change, because the impact appears to be great, and you absolutely need to be aware of it, especially if you’re struggling with certain issues, or if you’re starting to take certain medications, such as SSRI antidepressants. Click this to get a better idea about this connection between food and psychological health.
Well, if you are ready to learn more about that, then you have undeniably come to the right place. In short, what we are going to do right now is talk a bit more about the link between your diet and your mental health, as well as explain in a bit more details how it is that ultra-processed food (UPF) can affect SSRI treatments. Because, if you’re getting on this type of a treatment, you have to know what it is that you can and should do in order to actually increase their effectiveness, and get the benefits you are after.
So, as mentioned, you have come to the right place. Those are some rather important questions that you have on your mind right there, and it is time for you to get them answered. Keep on reading, therefore, to find out what you need to know here. Let us, thus, get started.
The Link Between Your Diet and Your Mental Health
We are, naturally, going to start with the actual link between your diet and your mental health. To cut right to the chase, the link exists, and it is quite significant, so you shouldn’t take it for granted. Scientists are constantly discovering new ways in which what we are eating can affect our psychological wellbeing, and there is no doubt that this is extremely important, and that you need to stay in the loop.
Read about the risks associated with ultra processed foods and mental health: https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-025-04002-4
For one thing, eating unhealthy food is sure to deprive your whole body of the important nutrients. And, that goes for your brain as well. Your brain needs certain minerals, vitamins, as well as healthy fats and other important nutrients in order to be able to function properly. Well, when you are eating a lot of UPF, you can expect those nutrients to be quite low, which can lead to irritability, fatigue, as well as other symptoms, and promote anxiety and depression.
Furthermore, UPF can cause chronic inflammation. And that, once again, can disrupt the chemical balance in your brain, as well as make the receptors less responsive to certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, which is important for the proper effectiveness of SSRIs, as we will quickly see. Clearly, thus, what you are eating can have a significant impact on your brain health, and thus your overall psychological wellbeing.
How UPF Affects SSRI Treatments
Let us now discuss in a bit more details the topic of SSRIs and UPF, and the connection between those two things. I have hinted above at the fact that UPF can cause inflammation, and thus result in certain receptors not being responsive to these specific drugs. After all, SSRIs work by inhibiting serotonin reuptake, and thus ensuring that you have enough of it in your brain chemistry, but that won’t be highly effective if the receptors don’t respond to serotonin due to inflammation.
As also mentioned above, UPF leads to nutrient deprivation. Understanding Ultra-Processed Foods, therefore, means knowing that they are high in calories and low in nutrients, and that they won’t really have a positive effect on your mental health, or on the effectiveness of SSRIs. When you don’t have the right nutrients, that can lower the effects of these medications.
One more highly important thing to know here is the link between gut health and brain health. To put it simply, the biggest amount of serotonin, that is, as much as 95%, is actually produced in the gut. And, when you consume a lot of UPF, you can actually disrupt the gut microbiome, which will result in lowering the production of serotonin, and, consequently, to SSRIs being ineffective. So, there is no doubt that you should watch your diet when taking these drugs, and when trying to do something good for your mental health in general.
